Underground sewer and water systems typically include numerous joints where pipes that are disposed in various spacial relationships to one another are joined together. Such joints often involve joining a vertical or substantially vertical pipe with at least one horizontal or substantially horizontal pipe. One example of such a joint is commonly known as a T-joint, which is actually a joint in the shaped of an inverted "T", formed to join a single vertical or substantially vertical pipe with two horizontal or substantially horizontal pipes. Over time, the weight of the dirt placed on and around such a joint and the pipes connected to it, and the weight of the pipe contents when in use, place tremendous stress upon the joint, particularly at the point of contact between the vertical or substantially vertical pipe and the joint. Given the large number of these types of pipe joints in municipal, commercial and residential infrastructure, substantial costs are incurred to replace cracked or crushed joints which have failed to withstand these forces.
A need therefore exists for an efficient way to provide support or reinforcement to conventional pipe joints to enable those joints to withstand such forces over extended periods of time.